Senior Pilot and Command pilot ratings

Try night dive bombing or a night low level. By
yourself.

Try your 4th A/R at night 28 hours into a 33.5 hour mission, in the weather,
with no divert options....

No matter how many pilots on board, the above scenario would challenge anyone.

Try a 5-minute scramble to a night low altitude intercept a
hundred miles out over the ocean on an unknown bogie running
blacked-out.

Try night 3-ship Harpoon training (involves flying at 500' ASL for hours at a
time, deconflicting yourself with 2 other bombers while copying targeting
messages and programming weapons)....

And how
often have multi-engine crews ever flown their airplane to its design
operational limits?

Damn near every BUFF guy, or at a minimum the B-52 Weapons School Grads.

How many times have they ever fought vertigo?

Several, and what I learned in a jet with two pilots, if one guys got it,
chances are the second guy has it, or will develop it shortly after taking
control...

One
'hood' ride to show proficiency in the 'unusual attitude' instrument
recoveries would turn most (not all) multi pilots' hair stark white.

Why?

Quite a bit
different from a canned computerized flight plan

That may be up to 4 pages long.....

a nice leisurely takeoff

At 1200 RVR with the single seat fighter guys behind them taxiing back to the
chocks....


and an autopilot cruise at a fixed altitude to a destination
with never a bank over 30 degrees

For 30 + hours with 4 or 5 A/Rs.....

Coffee at hand, you can
get up and walk around

Like the Hunchback of Notre Dame...

doze while the other guy 'flies' the
autopilot

Or hand "flies" for 20 + hours because your autopilot gave up after 3 hours....

and even have a meal

Yeah, the same one the fighter guys eating...

And most multi crews have basically
only one mission

Glad you said you "most", although I'd argue that is true now a days for only
tankers...

Oh, yes, refueling day and
night

Uhh, *every* multi-place aircraft does this......

Now and then a nice long deployment where you could log lots of
hours between takeoff and landing.

You're kidding right? We've got AWACS crews flying 12 hour VULs and BUFF crews
flying 17 hour sorties *every day* since OCT 01. Not to mention the cargo guys
flying from one end of the Arabian Gulf to the other....on the same day.

Professionalism is easy to profess - the proof is in how well you do a
complex job. Now, which job is more complex?

This is a ridiculous thread........


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"